
:H34 



A Suggested Program 

for the 

Executive State Council of 
Defense of West Virginia 



Based upon a study by Clarence L. Stonaker, of the 
Institutions and Resources of the State 



BY 



HASTINGS H. pART, LL. D., 

Russell Sage Foundation 



CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA 
August, 1917 




Reprinted by 

The Russell Sage Foundation 

130 East Twenty-Second Street 

New York City 



September, 1917 



MonograpK 



Prefatory Note 



This pamphlet containing a suggested program for the Executive 
State Council of Defense in the mobilization of the resources of the 
State to meet conditions growing out of the prosecution of the war 
with Germany, is the work of Hastings H. Hart, LL.D., Director 
of the Department of Child Helping, Russell Sage Foundation, 
New York City. The suggested program is based upon a study of 
conditions in West Virginia by Dr. Hart and Hon. Clarence L. 
Stonaker of New Jersey. The author has devoted considerable 
space to a discussion of the problem of social service and advocates 
the development of social work among the State institutions, sug- 
gesting increased facilities for the care of returning soldiers and 
their dependents. 

Because of the necessity existing in West Virginia for the en- 
largement of social service and welfare work, not only for the 
present responsibilities of caring for those who have offered their 
lives on the battle line and the dependents who remain at home 
but as an incentive for permanent material progress in this field 
of service the Executive State Council of Defense has directed the 
report of Dr. Hart to be printed. 

Jesse V. Sullivan, 
Secretary Advisory State Council of Defense. 



STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA. 



Executive State Council of Defense. 

President, Hon. John J. Cornwell, Governor. 

Secretary, Hon. Houston G. Young, Secretary of State. 

Hon. John S. Darst, Auditor. 

Hon. M. p. Shawkey, State Supt. of Schools. 

Hon. E. T. England, Attorney General. 

Hon. W. S. Johnson, Treasurer. 

Hon. Jas. H. Stewart, Commissioner of Agriculture. 

Additional copies furnished on request. 



35-^0 

. C^V\/5 

A SUGGESTED PROGRAM 

for the 

EXECUTIVE STATE COUNCIL OF DEFENSE OF 
WEST VIRGINIA 



New York, July 27, 1917. 

To the Executive State Council of Defense of West Virginia. 
Gentlemen : 

In accordance with your request at our conference of June 29 
we have undertaken a study of available resources, agencies, and 
institutions of the State of West Virginia which may be made 
effective in the efforts of the Council of Defense to mobilize the 
State in order to meet the demands which are made upon West 
Virginia in view of the entrance of this Nation upon the Great War. 

We called to our assistance in the prosecution of this study Hon. 
Clarence L. Stonaker, Secretary of the New Jersey State Charities 
Aid and Prison Association and formerly Secretary of the Colorado 
State Board of Charities and Corrections. Mr. Stonaker being an 
experienced newspaper man, is skilful in finding out and stating 
information as to social work and institutions. We requested Mr. 
Stonaker to study the social institutions and agencies of this State. 
In this undertaking he had the active co-operation of Hon. J. S. 
Lakin of the State Board of Control, who accompanied him in vis- 
iting all of the most important institutions in the State, giving him 
the benefit of his own complete and intimate knowledge of them. 

Mr. Stonaker has made a detailed report of his observations 
which is herewith submitted. The principal points of that report 
are outlined in this document. It will be noted that he has made 
his study with constant reference to the possible relations of the 
social agencies and institutions to the work of the Council of 
Defense. 

We have undertaken to outline, tentatively, a possible program 
for the activities of the Council. We wish to have it distinctly 
understood, however, that this is not intended to be a hard and 
fast program, to be executed literally or without change. It is 
''suggested," not prescribed, and it is "tentative," not fixed. It is 



4 Suggested Program for the 

intended only as a working basis for plans to be developed by the 
wisdom and experience of the Council, and it must of necessity be 
subject to change according to the exigencies and the evolution of 
the work of the Nation in prosecuting the war. 

THE SUGGESTED PROGRAM. 

I. An Educational Program for the Promotion of Patriotism. 

We beheve that the first duty of the Council of Defense is to 
promote patriotic feehng and consecration in the hearts of the 
people of the State, especially those adopted citizens who have 
come to West Virginia to seek larger opportunity and greater free- 
dom, but who need instruction in the principles of democracy and 
in the exercise of their rights, privileges, and duties as citizens of 
the State and of the Nation. 

At our conference of June 29 I submitted an outline of "Propa- 
ganda for Education in Patriotism, " beheving that the Council 
would probably wish to undertake immediately the development 
of such propaganda. Since that time I have submitted the outline 
to the secretary of the Bureau of Patriotism through Education 
of the National Security League and also to President H. N. 
MacCracken of Vassar College, chairman of the Bureau. Both 
of these gentlemen approved of it. President MacCracken says: 
"The plan for patriotic meetings seems excellent and I am glad 
to have it for my file." 

The following is the proposed plan: 

Propaganda for Education in Patriotism. 

A. Patriotic Meetings. 

Undertake a propaganda to promote pubHc meetings in the in- 
terest of patriotism in all parts of the state. 

Appoint a strong committee, including a leading member of 
each of the pohtical parties, a clergyman, a university professor, 
and a Chautauqua promoter. 

Let this committee secure the co-operation of the Bureau of 
Patriotism through Education of the National Security League, 
the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the 
Federation of Women's Clubs, and the chairman of the state party 
committees, the newspapers, and other organizations.* 

* Suggestive handbooks and pamphlets can be obtained from the first of 
these organizations, 31 Pine St.; and also from the second, 105 E. Twenty-' 
second St., New York City. 



• 






in 



Executive State Council op Defense 5 

Organize teams, consisting of three men and one woman, to visit 
the more important cities and hold patriotic meetings ; such teams 
should include at least one speaker to be furnished by the National 
Bureau of Patriotism through Education. Organize also county 
teams to visit the smaller communities. 

Subjects for Discussion. 

Let these meetings emphasize: 

1. Loyalty to our Government and our Flag. 

2. The fact that the United States has been forced into this 
war against its will, "to make the world safe for democracy," to 
protect the innocent and to defend the weak. 

3. The duty of every citizen to enlist for the war, and to find 
a way to serve his country, whether in the field, in civil service, 
in the hospital, or in the more faithful performance of the tasks 
of production, education, social service, or other duties which he 
may find at home. 

4. The duty of protecting the health, education, and morals of 
our children, thus avoiding the mistake of sacrificing the future 
strength of the Nation for a small immediate advantage. 

5. The importance of conserving our national resources, ma- 
terial and human, with the most rigid economy in order to win 
the fight for democracy. 

B. Enlistment of the Clergy. 

1. Ask the clergymen of the state to join with the committee 
of the State Council of Defense in an effort to induce every clergy- 
man, of whatever denomination, to preach a patriotic sermon at 
least once a month, inculcating the principles above mentioned and 
the rehgious foundation of patriotism. 

2. Urge the clergy to stimulate patriotism by the singing of 
''America" or other patriotic hymns at every public service, by 
the display of the American flag, and, where practicable, the flag 
of one or more of the allies, and by inspiring them to take an active 
share in all forms of endeavor tending to promote social well-being. 

II. Production of War Material. 

The products of West Virginia : Coal, steel in raw and manufac- 
tured forms, farm products, and live stock, are afl of the utmost 
importance at the present time. Whatever can be done to increase 



6 Suggested Program for the 

these products in a legitimate way is a great contribution to the 
Nation. 

We understand that the Executive Council of Defense has al- 
ready taken up this matter systematically and we do not consider 
it necessary to discuss it. We wish, however, to call attention to 
the fact that some of the foreign countries which are engaged in 
the war have made the mistake of laying so heavy a burden upon 
their people as actually to diminish their productive powers. In the 
long run a larger and better product will be secured from 54 hours' 
work per week under favorable conditions, with good food and with 
opportunities for wholesome recreation than from 70 hours' work 
performed by men who are kept constantly at the limit of physical 
endurance. England and France have discovered that women 
operatives in munition works are very much more efficient on an 
eight hour day than on a 10 hour day and that the same principle 
applies to boys between the ages of 14 and 16 ; while the labor of 
boys under 14, working long hours, is of little value and, in some 
kinds of work, is positively unprofitable. On page 11 of Mr. 
Stonaker's report he says; "In mines, the hazard is so great that 
all the large operators and most of the small ones decline to em- 
ploy minors of any age." This statement not only reflects credit 
upon the humanity of the operators but it also emphasizes a prac- 
tical fact with reference to the economy of production. 

III. Economy and Conservation of Food Supplies and Other 

Resources. 

The Council of Defense must urge by precept and example rigid 
economy in the use of foodstuffs and other material resources in 
order to maintain the armies in the field and the people at home 
and also to contribute food for the Allies, but with this economy 
they must inculcate a large generosity in gifts for war rehef at 
home and abroad and in subscriptions to national loans and other 
war funds. They must stimulate also such a spirit of unstinted 
self denial and conservation as animates our heroic Allies. 

IV. The Duty of the State Toward the Soldier. 

As soon as the soldier enhsts for the war he enters the service 
of the general government and ceases to be a member of the state 
troops. In every state, however, it is recognized that the National 
Government can not do all that should be done for the soldier and 
that the state must stand ready to do its part. 



Executive State Council of Defense 7 

The Council of Defense can contribute to the comfort and wel- 
fare of the soldiers while in training camps and after they are sent 
abroad. This can be done by promoting kindness, good will, and 
correspondence between the soldiers and the people whom they 
have left behind them. The sending of gifts and letters often brings 
cheer to the young soldier who is prone to suffer from homesick- 
ness. But care should be exercised, in consultation with a judicious 
committee of women, to avoid the abuses which sometimes arise 
in connection with efforts of this sort. The promiscuous associa- 
tion of young girls with soldiers without the presence of suitable 
chaperones is a very dangerous thing. The undirected corre- 
spondence of young girls with soldiers with whom their families 
are not acquainted may be perfectly innocent in intention but it 
is hable to produce evil results and should be carefully guarded. 

The Returned Soldier. 

As Mr. Stonaker has very clearly pointed out, many of the sol- 
diers who return from the front will be in need of the kindly offices 
of the State. Some will be worn out and will need opportunity to 
recuperate. Some will be sick and will need hospital and conva- 
lescent care. Some will come back wounded and crippled and will 
need surgical treatment with a long period of convalescence. 
These men, together with those who will have lost their sight, 
will need special training in order that they may be able to work 
for their own support instead of becoming hopeless paupers. Others 
will come back afflicted with tuberculosis and will need sanitarium 
care in order to cure them if possible, and in order to protect their 
neighbors from the dangers of the white plague. 

Some men will return infected with social diseases which will 
make them unfit to associate with other people. Many will come 
back aflaicted with mental disturbances which will often be curable 
by prompt and efiacient treatment, but the success of that treat- 
ment will depend upon having first class psychopathic hospitals 
ready for their treatment. 

From Mr. Stonaker's study it appears that West Virginia is 
especially favored in having three state surgical hospitals and five 
subsidized hospitals maintained in part at state expense. We be- 
lieve that it will be possible to use these hospitals for the benefit 
of returning soldiers, increasing their facihties by the use of tents 
or by building temporary shacks. It must be borne in mind, how- 
ever, that these hospitals are already taxed to the limit of their 
capacity and we would suggest that there will be a necessity for 



8 Suggested Progkam for the 

an immediate increase of hospital facilities, either by enlarging the 
existing hospitals or by establishing new ones. 

It will be necessary to provide these additional facilities at once 
in order to avoid the sufferings and the pubhc damage which have 
occurred in Europe because they failed to begin in time. New York 
and other states have already undertaken such preparation and 
the Council of Defense cannot begin too promptly. But in what- 
ever provision is undertaken for the needs of the returned soldier 
there should be constantly borne in mind the future needs of the 
State. It will probably be necessary for the Council of Defense to 
apply a portion of the fund at its disposal toward making these 
preparations. It will be a satisfaction both to the Council and to 
the people to realize that this portion of the funds can be so used as 
to serve both the immediate needs of the soldier and the future 
needs of the people. 

A Convalescent Home for Cripples* 
One of the earliest needs will be a convalescent home for wounded 
and crippled soldiers. The convalescence of a cripple is a much 
more tedious process than that of ordinary sickness. It frequently 
extends over a period of months and even years. Experience in 
England, France, and Canada has shown the absolute necessity 
for a vocational department in such a convalescent home in order 
that the crippled soldier may learn some trade or occupation which 
will enable him to earn a living for himself. Most surprising and 
gratifying results have been reached along these lines in those 
countries. It is a pitiful and disgraceful sight to see a man with 
one arm or one leg begging by the wayside when he might have 
been made a useful and productive citizen. 

An experimental school for the training of crippled adults has 
just been established in New York City under the direction of 
Dr. Edward T. Devine, one of the most competent men in the 
coimtry. A fund of $50,000 has been provided for its development. 
It will follow the lines which have been successfully pursued in 
England, France, and Canada. It is hoped that this school will 
become a model for similar schools in other parts of the United 
States. 

It is essential that the convalescent home for cripples should be 
located close by one of the largest cities of the state in order to be 



* It has been announced, since this program was published, that the Gen- 
eral Government proposes to establish 19 hospitals in different places, for the 
treatment, care, and training of crippled soldiers. 



Executive State Council of Defense 9 

within easy reach of the best orthopedic surgeons. The services of 
such surgeons are indispensable in order to secure complete con- 
valescence and in order to get the benefit of their advice with 
reference to the future occupation of the crippled men. 

This convalescent home should be of a permanent character for 
the reason that exactly such a home will be needed for the crippled 
children of the State and for adult cripples after they have received 
surgical treatment in the hospitals. All specialists agree that such 
convalescent homes are an essential feature of orthopedic treat- 
ment. 

A committee of the Council of Defense should visit the State 
Hospital School at Canton, Massachusetts, the New England Pea- 
body Home for Crippled Children at Hyde Park, Massachusetts, 
the Country Branch of the New York Orthopedic Hospital at 
White Plains, the Children's Hospital School, and the Kernan 
Hospital and Industrial School at Baltimore, and the Industrial 
Home for Crippled Children at Pittsburgh. These are the typical 
institutions of their class in the United States but it will be possible 
for West Virginia to adopt a somewhat simpler and less expensive 
plan of construction than either of them, without sacrificing the 
essential features of such a convalescent home. 



V. A Proposed State General Hospital. 

One of the most important suggestions made by Mr. Stonaker 
in his report is that the State Hospital at Huntington shall become 
a general receiving and distributing hospital for all kinds of cases 
from all parts of the State, and shall cease to be used for the custo- 
dial care of feeble-minded, epileptics, and other classes of patients. 

Mr. Stonaker proposes that the Huntington Hospital shall estab- 
hsh psychological and medical chnics for the study of all forms of 
mental and physical diseases in order to secure for each patient 
exactly the treatment which is called for by his condition. He pro- 
poses that the hospitals shall have a staff of experienced medical 
officers representing all of the important specialties of medical 
science and that it shall be prepared to furnish the most efficient 
and prompt treatment for all forms of surgery and for acute mental 
or physical diseases. 

Under his recommendation it would include a psychopathic hos- 
pital equipped with all of the modern methods for treating insanity 
and all new cases from all parts of the State would receive the best 
possible treatment in the early stages of the disease. As a result 



10 Suggested Program for the 

many of these cases would never reach the insane hospitals of the 
State. Children of doubtful mentahty would receive expert exami- 
nation in order to ascertain whether they are really feeble-minded 
or epileptic or whether their mental condition was due to reme- 
diable causes. In the former case they would be speedily trans- 
ferred to a school or colony for children of their class; in the latter 
case they would be subjected to such treatment and training as 
might be necessary to restore them to a normal condition. 

Crippled and deformed children would receive surgical treat- 
ment at Huntington after which they would be transferred to the 
proposed "State Hospital School" for convalescence, education, 
and vocational training. 

Inebriates, drug addicts, and victims of venereal diseases would 
receive skilled treatment during the acute stage of their disease 
and would then be transferred to working colonies until they be- 
come fit for restoration to citizenship. 

The Huntington Hospital would thus become a great clearing 
house for afflicted people from all parts of the State and would 
make it possible greatly to increase the efficiency of the hospitals 
for the sick and the insane, the institutions for children, the state 
reformatories, and the philanthropic agencies of the State. 

If Mr. Stonaker's recommendation should be adopted the Hunt- 
ington Hospital would become the rendezvous to which all returned 
soldiers, found to be diseased or crippled or vitally exhausted, 
would be gathered for immediate treatment and for subsequent 
distribution either to their homes or to some institution for per- 
manent care. We commend this proposition to the earnest con- 
sideration of the Executive Council of Defense. 



VI. The Care of Soldiers' Families. 

A sacred obhgation rests upon the Council of Defense and the 
people of West Virginia toward the dependent families of the men 
who are taking their lives in their hands and crossing the ocean to 
foreign shores for the common defense. This obhgation appeals to 
every right minded citizen and there will be no question as to the 
readiness of the people of the State to meet it. It is of vital im- 
portance, however, that this duty shall be discharged with such 
wisdom and fidelity as to secure both the interests and happiness 
of those mothers and children who may need assistance. 

It is of fundamental importance that this shall be recognized as 
a family problem. The interests of the mother and the child are 



Executive State Council of Defense 11 

not separate and ought not to be separated except in those com- 
paratively few cases where the mother is morally or mentally unfit 
to care for her own child. 

After the Civil War the States of Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas estab- 
lished "Soldiers' Orphans' Homes" for the care of dependent chil- 
dren of soldiers. Most of the children admitted to these homes had 
living mothers. It was believed that the State could do better for 
the children than could be done by their mothers in view of their 
poverty or their inefficiency. 

In practice the orphans' home plan did not prove entirely satis- 
factory. It was very expensive, involving the maintenance of 
children at a liberal cost for many years. It was an unnatural plan 
of living. However well-conducted the homes might be the chil- 
dren were nevertheless deprived of the privileges and opportunities 
of natural family home life. It was a cruel plan. The State said 
to the widowed mother : "Poor woman! You have lost your hus- 
band who has sacrificed his life for his country. We are deeply 
sorry for you and in order to testify our gratitude to him and our 
sympathy for you we will take your children away and bring them 
up for you and thus will enable you to get a living for yourself." 
Thus the mother, bereft of her husband was bereft also of her chil- 
dren. 

Happily, in this generation we have found a better way. The 
State of West Virginia has passed a law for mothers' pensions under 
which it will be possible for the State to supplement the provision 
which may be made by the National Government so that it will 
be unnecessary for any good and competent mother to be separated 
from her children; and it will also be unnecessary for mothers to 
wear themselves out by excessive labor or to leave their children 
to roam the streets while they work in the factory or in domestic 
service in order to support their children. 

The mothers' pension law of West Virginia will need to be care- 
fully revised in the light of the experience of New York, New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The Council of Defense 
will need to stand firmly against a popular sentiment which is 
opposed to any supervision of mothers' pensions on the ground 
that this allowance is a matter of right and that the mother is 
entitled to take the money and use it as she will. The mothers' 
pension is not an individual and personal right, it is a public fund 
provided to conserve the children who are not only natural wards 
of the mother but are also wards of the great Mother State. When 



12 Suggested Peogram for the 

the State provides money by taxation for this purpose it is not only 
the privilege, but the duty of the State to follow that money and 
see that it is applied to the purpose for which it was designed. 

The State must ascertain through competent and sympathetic 
agents whether the mother possesses the character, the intelligence, 
and the necessary physical strength and whether she is living in 
conditions which will enable her to bring up her children properly. 
If she is found lacking in any of these particulars the agents of the 
State must endeavor so to improve the conditions of the family as 
to enable her to care properly for her children, and if, after faithful 
efforts, this can not be accomplished, then provision must be made 
for the children in some other way. It would be inexcusable for the 
State to deliberately supply an unfit mother with funds in order to 
enable her to keep her children in a home of vice or filth, or one 
where they are without proper education or restraint; but on the 
other hand the supervision must be kindly, sympathetic, and help- 
ful. It will be best exercised by trained, intelligent women. 

The Care of Soldiers' Orphans. 

Some children of soldiers will be found who have lost both father 
and mother and some whose parents are entirely unable or unfit to 
care for them. In some cases the disabilities of the parents will be 
temporary and they will be able to resume the care of their chil- 
dren later. It will be necessary to make provision for such children, 
temporary or permanent, as the case may be. This provision may 
be made either by committing them to an orphanage, either one 
already existing or in a "soldiers' orphans' home," or by placing 
them out in a family home through an approved agency. 

We have no hesitation in urging the adoption of the plan of plac- 
ing-out or boarding-out in family homes in preference to commit- 
ment to orphanages. But the placing-out plan ought never to be 
tolerated unless the agency in charge of the work is thoroughly 
reliable, and it is unquestionably true that West Virginia has not 
at the present time such an agency. 

Mr. Stonaker has described the two placing-out agencies of West 
Virginia. The writer has been personally familiar with these two 
agencies for many years and is also familiar with all of the impor- 
tant child placing agencies in the United States. Theoretically, 
the placing-out organization of your State is ideal. You have a 
State agency known as the West Virginia Humane Society which 
is supported and administered by the State. This agency has a 
receiving home known as the Elkins Children's Home for the tem- 



Executive State Council of Defense 13 

porary care of white children, and there is a state home near Hunt- 
ington for colored children awaiting placement. You have also a 
voluntary society known as the West Virginia Children's Home 
Society which is privately administered without any control or 
supervision by the State. This society also has a Shelter for the 
temporary care of children at Charleston. 

The West Virginia Humane Society has never established the 
standards which are now required by every reputable child-placing 
agency. It has lacked efficient leadership; it has never had com- 
petent field agents; its receiving home has been repeatedly the 
object of criticism. We understand that the board of trustees is 
now looking for a competent superintendent and proposes to estab- 
lish standards similar to those maintained by the state agencies of 
Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Indiana. Under the new 
law the society will be under the direction of the State Board of 
Control and there is every reason to anticipate that it will be put 
upon a modern basis. 

The West Virginia Children's Home Society had an income last 
year of $9,600, of which about $6,000 were expended in maintaining 
the Davis Shelter in Charleston, which is the receiving home of the 
society, leaving only $3,600 for the field work of the society. 

The superintendent of the society is about 75 years old. He has 
only one field agent. These two men raise all of the funds of the 
society, receive all new children (175 last year), place children in 
family homes, and are responsible for the supervision of 500 wards 
of the society, scattered through the State. It is absolutely im- 
possible for these two men to attend to the interests of the children 
in any proper way. All of the time of the superintendent should 
be given to the executive work of the society and the raising of 
money. The best placing-out societies now consider that they 
need a field agent for every 50 children in care together with an 
office staff of record clerks and stenographers. One agent for 
every 75 children may be regarded as a minimum. On this basis 
the society should have at least seven field agents instead of one 
for the care of its 500 wards, with at least one record clerk and 
two stenographers to keep the records and carry on the corres- 
pondence of the society. This would require a budget for field 
work of $12,000 instead of the present budget of $3,600. 

The absurdity of the present conditions is manifest. The so- 
ciety has in its Shelter at Charleston 25 children and it employs 
for their care six women (not too many) . It has under its care in 
family homes throughout the State, 500 children needing careful 



14 Suggested Program for the 

and faithful supervision and for this duty it employs a minor frac- 
tion of the time of two men. 

We believe strongly in the maintenance of a private child-plac- 
ing society, and the Children's Home Society's general plan of 
organization is a good one, but we have no hesitation in saying 
that unless the society can be reorganized with a sufficient staff of 
trained workers, and unless a sufficient budget can be secured to 
support it, it should go out of business. The Kentucky Children's 
Home Society has a budget of about $50,000 per year ; the Florida 
Children's Home Society has a budget of about $35,000 per year; 
the West Virginia Children's Home Society has a budget of about 
$10,000 per year. The amount expended by these three societies 
for each 100,000 people in the state is: for Florida $3,800; for 
Kentucky $2,100; for West Virginia $700. The income of the 
two West Virginia societies is about $1,400 for each 100,000 people. 
The income of the West Virginia Children's Home Society should 
be at least doubled immediately. A competent superintendent 
should be secured, and a staff of competent field agents should be 
employed. The Board of Directors should give careful study to 
their job and should go to work systematically to enlist the good 
will and co-operation of the people of the state. 

The work of the State Humane Society should be so organized as 
to meet the needs of Roman Catholic and Jewish children by in- 
suring their placement with people of like reUgious faith with their 
parents. If the number of Roman Catholic children is large enough 
the St. Vincent de Paul Society should be encouraged to organize 
a placing-out agency of their own similar to the agencies already 
organized in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and IlUnois. 



Delinquent Children. 

It is generally agreed that the Great War has resulted in a la- 
mentable increase in dehnquency among the children of European 
countries. This increase has been due in part to the general de- 
moralization incident to this extraordinary conflict. It is due in 
part to the breaking up of famihes, the absence and death of the 
father, and the economic pressure upon home life. It is due in 
part to the enlistment of school teachers as soldiers or nurses or 
munition workers, and to the use of school property for hospitals 
or other mihtary purposes. It is due in part to the employment 
of children as munition workers or in other occupations without 
proper supervision and without proper regard for the interests of 



Executive State Council of Defense 15 

childhood. It is due in part to the physical deterioration due to 
insufficient food and lack of personal and medical care. 

Happily pubHc sentiment in the United States from the Presi- 
dent down, is demanding that there shall be no sacrifice of the in- 
terests of children for the prosecution of the war; that the schools 
shall be maintained in full efficiency; that children shall be suffi- 
ciently fed and cared for; that the moral standards of the commun- 
ity shall be steadfastly maintained, and that the exploitation of 
children in child labor, and the kind, arduousness, and hours of 
work shall be rigidly controlled. These ideas should be earnestly 
promoted by the Council of Defense; and no pubHc needs should 
be allowed to outweigh them. 

The juvenile court and probation system which exists in Charles- 
ton and Wheeling should be extended to the rural counties, the 
State School for Boys at Pruntytown should be turned into a re- 
formatory for young men, and a new state school should be built 
from the ground up with modern equipment. The State Council 
of Defense should encourage the extension of such movements as 
the Boy Scouts and the County Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tions with pubhc playgrounds and other wholesome forms of recrea- 
tion throughout the State. 

The conservation of juvenile morals is a matter of the utmost im- 
portance because the boys of the State must fill the places which 
will be vacated by the men who lost their lives or their productive 
energy at the front. The democracy, the community life, and the 
home life of the nation are to depend upon them. 

VII. Utilization of Prison Labor. 

With the tremendous demand for war supplies in addition to the 
ordinary demand for domestic uses; with the cessation of immigra- 
tion which for 150 years has poured a steady stream of fresh labor- 
ers into the United States; and with the immediate diversion of a 
million men, and perhaps four or five millions, to the trade of war, 
we are confronted with a scarcity of labor which compels us to 
utilize every available worker to the limit of his reasonable ca- 
pacity. 

It has been a matter of pride to the pubhc officials of the State of 
West Virginia that the convicts in your penitentiary have actually 
been able to earn the entire cost of their own maintenance, working 
under the contract system at from 65 to 70 cents per day, with an 
actual surplus for the state treasury of 18 cents per man. It 
appears also that the prisoners who are employed on the contract 



16 Suggested Progeam for the 

have earned by over-time work about $48,000, or $40 yearly per 
man, which has gone to themselves for their families. 

But able bodied men, working under skilled direction and 
thorough system, without loss of time from drink, strikes, or vol- 
untary holidays, ought to earn more than their board and clothes. 
In the present state of the labor market it is possible for prisoners, 
under proper circumstances, to earn two dollars per day. In Ver- 
mont, prisoners from the common jail are earning two dollars per 
day on the adjacent farms. In Windham county, Connecticut, 
prisoners are actually earning $2.50 per day at common labor, and 
at Wilmington, Delaware, short term prisoners are earning $1.20 
per day. 

Organized labor has fought against prison labor, especially 
against the contract system, not because the prisoners are pro- 
ductively employed but because their labor is sold for less than it 
is worth and becomes a source of excessive profit to the contractor, 
thus enabling him to compete unjustly with his competitors and 
to force down the price of free labor. 

It is generally agreed that in view of the food requirements of 
the United States and her allies prisoners should be employed, as 
far as possible, in food production. The amount of land culti- 
vated by prisoners has probably increased fifty percent during the 
past year. It now amounts to hundreds of thousands of acres. 
The state prisoners of Mississippi are working 27,000 acres and the 
state is now purchasing 5,000 acres more. 

Mr. Stonaker, in his report, page five, has indicated how the 
state may get full value for its prison labor and the prisoners may 
earn for the state from $1.20 to $2.00 per day instead of 70 cents: 
namely by employing them upon the public highways. 

The plan of employing prisoners in road building is not new. It 
was first used in this country in the southern states and has long 
been followed there. In recent years it has been introduced in the 
northern states with great success. 

There is a radical difference, however, between the old method 
and the new method of employing prisoners in road building. 
Warden Thomas J. Tynan of the Colorado State Penitentiary 
wrote recently as follows: ''We are now doing work to the value of 
$2.50 per day by prisoners on the highway at a cost to the tax-payers 
of the State not to exceed 40 cents per day. The State could well 
afford to pay a little wage besides the good time allowance." 

The difference between the old system and the new system hes 
chiefly in the manner of dealing with the prisoners. Under the new 



Executive State Council of Defense 17 

plan an appeal is made to the prisoner's honor and good will. After 
being tested within the walls, he is permitted to join a company of 
workers outside the wall on his promise of good work and good be- 
havior and on his promise not to run away. The prisoners work 
without chains and the guards in many cases carry no firearms. 
Testimony comes from Ohio, from Oregon, from Colorado, from 
Wisconsin, from Connecticut, and from Canada that prisoners — 
even low-grade prisoners and Negroes — respond surprisingly to this 
treatment; that escapes are few and that there is a great improve- 
ment in the industry and efficiency of the prisoners. 

The incentive to the prisoners to make good is partly an in- 
creased allowance for good time; partly, in some states, a small 
cash wage; partly the desire of the prisoners for the freer life out- 
side the walls, and partly a response to the confidence shown in 
them by their ofl&cers. 

Success in employing prisoners on the roads by modern methods 
depends first upon finding a road manager who is interested in his 
men and believes in the possibility of exciting their interest and 
loyalty for the work. It depends second upon creating such Hving 
and working conditions as will keep the men fit for a good day's 
work. That means good food, good cooking, comfortable sleeping 
quarters, opportunity for proper recreation, good laundry work and 
bathing facilities, and above all the treatment of the prisoners by 
their officers as reasonable human beings. 

The plan of roadside camps, portable cages, chain gangs, ignorant 
and cruel guards armed with shot guns and discretionary power, 
will not secure cheerful and efficient work. 

We would suggest that the Council of Defense take this matter 
up with the Board of Control and if possible arrange for an experi- 
ment along this fine. Let the Board of Control rent a farm in a 
neighborhood where there is highway work of importance at differ- 
ent places within six or eight miles. 

EstabHsh on this farm a good camp, well equipped with shacks, 
good beds, a good kitchen, shower baths, a good small hospital, and 
a competent physician. 

Let the State appropriate for road construction an amount which 
will equal for each man the amount now paid by the contractor, 70 
cents per day. Let this money be expended in districts where the 
county authorities are wilfing to appropriate an additional sum of 
70 cents per day to each man, making a total of $1.40 per day. 
Allow to each prisoner, including cooks, house-cleaners, hospital 
nurses, and other employees about the camp, wages at the rate of 



18 Suggested Program for the 

$1.40 per day. Charge each prisoner at the rate of 70 cents per 
day for the cost of his keep, including salaries and wages of em- 
ployees. Allow the prisoner to expend from his wages a small sum 
(perhaps $2 or $3 monthly) for combs, tooth brushes, handker- 
chiefs, neckties, tobacco, candy, etc., to be purchased from the 
prison stores at cost. 

If the State can not try this experiment without new legislation 
it is possible that some county may be induced to test it out. Un- 
less your experience is different from that of other States we believe 
that you will be surprised at the good results obtainable under this 
plan. 

The prisoners should spend every night at the camp, either walk- 
ing to and from their work, if the distance is not too great, or being 
carried back and forth in automobile trucks. Provision should be 
made for a night school, one hour each evening, and for services 
to be conducted by a chaplain possessed both of religion and of 
practical common sense. 

Under this plan the State would get back the whole of its appro- 
priation of 70 cents a day, the county would get its roads built at 
half price and the prisoner and his family would get the 70 cents 
per day for their maintenance. In the meantime the nation at 
large would profit by the improved transportation facilities which 
must of necessity increase the productiveness of the State. 

County Jail Prisoners. 

In most States of the Union county jail prisoners are kept in 
idleness. Either they do not work at all or their work is of practic- 
ally no value. We understand that a considerable number of the 
county jail prisoners in West Virginia are employed upon the roads. 
In that case what has already been said will apply and the efficiency 
of such road labor can be increased in the manner already suggested. 

In those counties where the jail prisoners are not employed, we 
would suggest that the adoption of the Vermont plan under which 
the jailer finds employment for individual prisoners with a near-by 
farmer who pays for their labor at the ordinary rate for free labor. 
The prisoner sleeps at the jail and has his breakfast and supper 
there — two good hearty meals. He goes out in the morning, carry- 
ing a dinner bucket and returns at night. If the distance is too 
great the farmer sends for him by team or automobile. If the pris- 
oner fails to make good or tries to run away the farmer notifies 
the sheriff promptly, who sends a deputy sheriff after him. The 
reports from Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, and Wisconsin 



Executive State Council of Defense 19 

where this plan prevails show very few escapes. No guard is nec- 
essary, as the farmer looks after the prisoners and thus the over- 
head charges are done away with. 

In some States the councils of defense are inducing jail prisoners, 
upon their discharge, to enhst in the army or to engage in other 
pubHc service. Under the rules adopted by the Government, pris- 
oners who have been sentenced for felonies can not enhst in the 
army. 

VIII. The Defectives. 

It is clear from Mr. Stonaker's report that the Council of De- 
fense will need to give attention to the question of provision for de- 
fectives. If our suggestion with reference to the use of the hos- 
pital at Huntington as a general state hospital is followed, it will 
be necessary to increase the accommodations for the insane in 
order to meet the natural demand of a growing state. Mr. Ston- 
aker is undoubtedly correct in his judgment that the hospital at 
Spencer should not be enlarged. It is verj'' difficult of access, its 
water supply is deficient, and the available building space is in- 
adequate. His proposition for a new hospital in the southern part 
of the state which shall provide accommodations for insane soldiers 
after they have had active treatment at Huntington, and shall ulti- 
mately be used for the colored insane appears reasonable. 

The new hospital should be organized on the colony plan with- 
out expensive administration buildings, with inexpensive cottages 
and with abundant opportunity for congenial employment at 
farming and other industries. We are unable to suggest a plan for 
developing this institution without legislation and without a state 
appropriation; but it will be most unfortunate if provision can not 
be made in advance for the care of the insane soldiers who are cer- 
tain to come back from France, and we hope that a way can be 
found. 

The adoption of the general hospital plan at Huntington will 
minimize the number of men requiring permanent insane hospital 
care. Many of them will be cured in a few weeks and sent back to 
their homes. There is a growing recognition of the fact that the 
hope of cure for the insane is largely restricted to the early period 
of the disease. There is five times as much hope of recovery in 
the first three months as in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months. 
We owe it to our soldiers to see that they get an early chance. 

The institutional care of the feeble-minded — especially of the 
feeble-minded girls — is a matter of urgent importance. As Mr. 



20 Suggested Progkam for the 

Stonaker has well pointed out, the war will greatly increase the 
number of defectives in the state and unless immediate action is 
taken the tide will be overwhelming. The feeble-minded girl is 
a constant menace to the morals of the community because of 
her inabiUty to protect herself. A study in Virginia of 300 prosti- 
tutes indicated that at least 65 percent of them were feeble-minded, 
and statistics completed in New Jersey show that feeble-minded 
women are twice as proHfic as normal women and that the majority 
of their children are also defective. 

We recognize the difficulty of promoting a campaign for adequate 
institutional care for the feeble-minded at this time but it will at 
least be possible to take into account the future needs of the feeble- 
minded in planning for the temporary institutions which will be 
demanded by the war. 

The epileptics, though fewer in number than the feeble-minded, 
are almost equally in need of public care. We call attention only 
to the fact that epileptics should be cared for separately from de- 
linquents, the insane, and the feeble-minded, and that it is no more 
expensive to provide separate cottages and separate institutions for 
the epileptics than it is to provide for them by mingling them with 
the inmates of other institutions to the detriment of all concerned. 



IX. Tuberculosis. 

On this subject we quote from Mr. Stonaker 's report (page 23) : 
"The State has made a most commendable beginning in its estab- 
lishment of the State Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Terra Aita. The 
site is good; the buildings are well planned and well located and 
the service is excellent. The fact that there is constantly a long 
waiting list of applicants in a state institution where the service is 
not free, as in most other states, is convincing evidence of the qual- 
ity of its work. For emergency needs, the Terra Alta plant is pre- 
pared, so far as medical skill and nursing service go; but it would 
need financial assistance from the Council of Defense should the de- 
mand arise for more buildings and a larger service for the benefit 
of returned soldiers." 

The dreadful revelations as to the prevalence of tuberculosis 
among the soldiers in the trenches of France and the lack of pro- 
vision either for the care of the tuberculous soldiers or the protec- 
tion of the community from infection is a warning which must not 
be neglected. On this point we quote again from the report of 
Mr. Stonaker (page 24): "The present stage of knowledge of this 



Executive State Council of Defense 21 

disease indicated that it is fundamentally a disease of childhood 
which demonstrates itself in adult life through stress and strain. 
Infection comes in early life and is resisted if the physical condition 
of the youth is maintained on a high standard. This is the reason 
for safeguarding the sanitary conditions of family life in camp and 
town living." 

With reference to provision for tubercular patients the same prin- 
ciple applies as in other cases, namely, that the future needs of the 
State should be carefully borne in mind. 



X. Public Health Service. 

Mr. Stonaker, in his report, has indicated the imperative neces- 
sity for increasing the powers and the resources of the State Board 
of Health as a war measure. He calls attention to the lack of birth 
registration in the past to supply facts with reference to the age of 
candidates for enhstment and men subject to conscription, and 
also to the lack of adequate registration of contagious and infec- 
tious diseases. 

Dr. H. M. Biggs, of the New York State Department of Pubhc 
Health, has recently visited France and he testifies to the great 
damage which that nation is suffering in the prosecution of the war 
for lack of an efficient pubhc health organization, especially with 
reference to the dissemination of tuberculosis and venereal diseases. 

It will probably be necessary for the Executive Council of 
Defense to make some appropriation from its funds to promote the 
work of the State Board of Health until more adequate state appro- 
priations can be secured from the Legislature. 

XI. Co-operation of Women. 

The co-operation of the women of the State is of the utmost im- 
portance. Their aid should be invoked, not only in the feminine 
offices of nursing, knitting, and packing boxes with "comforts" for 
the soldier, but in the larger matters of organization and adminis- 
tration and especially in those matters which have to do with the 
families and the children of soldiers. Women may well be given 
the chief responsibility for the administration of the mothers' pen- 
sion law, as in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 

The Bureau of Woman's Defense should have assigned to it dis- 
tinct responsibihties and its representatives should sit with the 
Executive Council of Defense in their business sessions. Through 



22 Suggested Progeam for the 

the Bureau of Woman's Defense close co-operation should be estab- 
lished with the sixty woman's clubs of West Virginia through the 
State Federation of Woman's Clubs, with the Young Women's 
Christian Associations, and other efficient organizations of women. 

XII. The State Board of Control. 

The Executive Council of Defense should work in close consulta- 
tion and in complete harmony with the State Board of Control. 
That Board has extraordinary powers. Probably no State Board of 
Control in the United States has as large authority. It is in touch 
with the most of the social work of the State and is in a position to 
accomplish much of what needs to be done through its own re- 
sources and where its own resources fail it can assist the Council 
of Defense in the use of the means which have been given it by the 
Legislature. 

XIII. Other Social Agencies. 

The Council of Defense should use every effort to enlist the active 
co-operation of all of the social agencies of the State; The churches, 
the Young Men's Christian Association, the Boy Scouts, the Asso- 
ciated Charities, the Relief Societies, the Fraternal Orders, the 
Social Welfare Workers employed by Corporations, the Red Cross 
Chapters and other social and philanthropic organizations. 

Correspondence should be estabhshed with the National Red 
Cross, the National Security League, and other national organiza- 
tions whose advice and co-operation may be helpful. 

XIV. Certification of Organizations. 

A multitude of organizations for war relief and for the purposes 
connected with the war, foreign, national and local, have sprung 
up and are appealing for contributions from all parts of the coun- 
try. A list of 84 different organizations for war purposes was re- 
ported recently in New York City. The generous people through- 
out the country who desire to contribute have no means of deter- 
mining the reliability or the relative merits of this multitude of 
agencies. Many of them are important; many of them are of 
minor importance, and some of them are fakes. 

In many cities chambers of commerce or other civic organiza- 
tions have established "charities endorsement committees" which 
undertake to prepare a list of agencies which they are wilhng to 



Executive State Council of Defense 23 

recommend to the public as worthy of confidence and support. 
Some such civic bodies have seen too clearly the financial side and 
not clearly enough the social side of such organizations; but on 
the whole this plan, where it is carefully organized and adminis- 
tered in a broad spirit of charity, has been found very useful. 

It is reported that in the first two years of the war a vast number 
of organizations for war purposes sprang up in the European coun- 
tries, many of which proved to be superfluous and after absorbing 
large amounts of pubHc contributions finally went out of existence. 

We would suggest that the Council of Defense can render a pubhc 
service of great value by undertaking to furnish to the people of 
West Virginia a list of those organizations for war relief and other 
purposes connected with the war which it can recommend for pubhc 
support. It is not necessary that the Council should undertake to 
make an adverse recommendation, except in cases where it is mani- 
fest that the public should be warned. Neither is it necessary to 
furnish a final list at the outset. The fist could be increased and 
revised from time to time. 

Confidential information with reference to such organizations can 
be obtained from the National Red Cross, the New York Charity 
Organization Society, the Chicago Bureau of Charities, and other 
similar organizations. The Council will be taking safe ground in 
refusing its endorsement to all organizations which are not directed 
by a competent and responsible committee or which do not pubhsh 
a periodical financial statement covered by a responsible audit. 

XV. An Advisory Board. 

Our study of the social institutions of the State brought out the 
fact that there is a general demand for an Advisory State Board of 
Charities. Such a board is favored by the Board of Control, which 
is the executive board of charities. It is favored by the represen- 
tatives of the university whose study of social questions has con- 
vinced them of its utihty. It is favored by many intelhgent 
citizens. 

Some liave supposed that all of the functions of such a board 
could be discharged by the State Board of Control, but that Board 
is fully employed with its executive work, and the experience of 
Ohio, IlHnois, and Miimesota has shown that there is abundant 
feeling for an advisory board to work in co-operation with the 
State Board of Control. The expense of such a board is compara- 
tively small because the members serve without pay, and the sec- 
retary is the executive officer. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 




24 Suggested Program 

005 772 930 

If our recommendations are adopted, the Council of Defense will 
discharge many of the functions of such a board for the time being, 
but we beheve that you will be led by your practical experience in 
this field to move for the creation of a permanent State Board of 
Charities. 

On page 42 of his report, Mr. Stonaker has suggested several 
different forms of organizations for such a board, but the exact 
form which it shall assume must be determined by consultation and 
study. 

XVI. The Executive Secretary. 

We would advise that the Council of Defense magnify the office 
of its Executive Secretary. Its success and standing will depend 
largely upon the wisdom, tact, energy and efl&ciency of its secre- 
tary. He ought to be the busiest man in West Virginia for the next 
year. 

It will be good economy to furnish your secretary with such 
clerical and stenographic assistance and such office facilities and 
printing as he may need. Your administration should be strictly 
economical and should involve no superfluous expense; but effi- 
cient administration is economical and it would be bad economy 
to load down your Executive Officer with so many petty details 
that he would be compelled to neglect the larger duties for which 
he is employed. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Hastings H. Hart. 



